Crusty Bread Sandwich

This month's Aspiring Baker's June Challenge is Bread .... it is a real challenge for me as I always find bread making tedious and time consuming. Although I have a bread maker at home and have attended free lessons from PH, I've only used my bread maker to make jam and pau .... what a waste huh! But I just don't wish to miss this month's challenge and have been spending some time flipping through my baking books looking for recipes on bread making. I found a recipe in this Chinese book 精緻點心DIY that I bought in Taiwan many years ago. You don't even have to bake the bread, just dip with beaten egg and breadcrumbs then deep fry it (I shallow fry the bread for health purpose) and make it into a sandwich. I can tell you that it is real easy to work with without the bread maker machine, the bread outside is very crusty and inside is super soft. I've added lettuce, ham, egg, tomato, cucumber and a dash of pepper and sandwich with butter spread. Of course you can add cheese, tuna, sausage or anything you desire.

Here is the recipe (I only used half recipe for 9 medium size crusty bread)

250g Bread flour

40g Caster sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

1 small egg (about 30g)

25g Crisco shortening

150g Water

5g Instant yeast

Soak instant yeast into the water until dissolved.

Add bread flour, salt and sugar into mixing bowl and mix well with a rubber spatula.

Add egg and dissolved yeast into it, use mixer with dough hook attachment and switch machine to medium speed until mixture becomes a soft dough.

Place soft dough on dusted flour surface and press dough down with the heel of your hand, then roll the dough towards you, turn dough and repeat a few times (about 5 mins). Add crisco shortening in the center, wrap it up and repeat the process again until it's smooth and elastic and shape it into a ball.

Cover the dough in a bowl and let it rest for about 30 mins or dough rises to double or triple.

Use your index finger to poke the dough, it does not spring back, it is ready to use.

Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 9 equal pieces about 55g each and knead smooth into round balls, cover with plastic sheet and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Rub a small amount of flour on the rolling pin and roll dough to long length, about 8 inches long and 4 inches wide.

Use your hand to roll up the dough, gently press the dough as you roll.

Prepare one lightly beaten egg on a small tray and breadcrumbs on another tray.

Dip dough on the lightly beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs, let it rest for another 10 mins.

Deep fry dough at medium heat for about 8 minutes till golden brown. (I shallow fry the bread dough instead by turning the dough often to make sure the dough is cooked)

Leave crust bread to cool and slice it lengthwise and sandwich with any fillings you fancy.

Enjoy!

Kitchen note: I think I've should dusted some plain flour on the dough before dipping with egg as you can see my crusty bread is quite dark.

Got a good feedback from Fong's Kitchen Journal about the method of deep frying bread ~ "You may want to try deep-frying instead of shallow-frying for a lighter brown tone. When shallow-fry, the bread is very close to the bottom of pan/wok and it will burn easily. Start with lower heat at the beginning and increase heat at the end to expel the oil." ~ Thank you Fong :)

Looks delicious! You may want to try deep-frying instead of shallow-frying for a lighter brown tone. When shallow-fry, the bread is very close to the bottom of pan/wok and it will burn easily. Start with lower heat at the beginning and increase heat at the end to expel the oil.

Hi Ann, you're an amazing baker, seems that no bakery items can challenge you.Btw, wonder how you make jam with your breadmaker. I've got a breadmaker, just use it to make breads/pau or pizza etc, ever made any jam with it.

@InduHi Indu, As this is my first bread making, I'm not very sure about the substitution but I've checked with some bloggers most of them used butter and milk instead. I think adding crisco is to make the bread more crusty.

Hi Ann! Nice easy recipe! Best is no baking involved! LOLActually I'm quite surprised that you need not bake the bread first and can just deep/shallow-fried it! (I've never bake before..hee..)I've always love fried bread with panko for its crispiness outside yet soft inside. :)

You really hardworking huh, hehehe..who help you to take the detail steps of photo? Hmm, this look so good, like Jane said, my kids would love this too.Thanks for sharing the detail steps, appreciate much. Agreed with Fong's note.

This is a different kind of crusty bread that I'm used too. It looks amazing, and how good you found out why they turned out darker than you planned! Time for lunch, please pass the crusty bread sandwich! :D

@AnncooFirst time frying bread and you already did it so well! This shows that you're really talented Ann! Well done! :DJust saw your additional infomations that you'll be entering this recipe for "Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction June 2011" and "Yeastspotting" ! Wish you all the best and good luck! ^.^